Speech #1050139630

We have all heard in recent weeks from Senator BENNEr. our colleague from Utah. who is the Senates foremost expert on the problems we confront with the year 2K situation. Now. we have a Senate task force to examine those issues specifically with what the intent is for us in the Senate. but what we clearly know is there is not one sector of our economy that is not going to be impacted by the year 2K problems. I have heard from numerous companies and numerous individuals trying to meet the year 2K challenges. who said it is absolutely vital that we increase the H1B visa program at this time so we can bring in sufficient talent to deal with the year 2K problems between now and the end of 1999. Yet. as I say. we have hit the cap. I will be talking about this in greater detail as we go along this afternoon. but let me talk specifically about what our legislation would do to meet these challenges. both the shortterm problem we have. such as the year 2K problem. and the longterm problem we are trying to address. the challenge of having enough American workers to meet the dramatic increases in job creation in the information technology sector of the economy. Our legislation would do the following: First. it would temporarily increase from 65.000 to 95.000 the cap on H1B visas. That means an increase of 30.000 per year. In addition. we have created as a safety valveso we would have at least the possibility of congressional oversight and examination if we hit that 95.000 cap sooner than anticipateda safety valve which would permit us to use up to 20.000 visas from the H2B program. if such visas were available and unused by that program in the previous year. As I say. our legislation has a 5year sunset to it. In short. we tried to make this a shortterm rather than a longterm focus piece of legislation in the hope that in that 5year period we can develop through job training programs and our educational system the talent we need right here at home. So it would be a 5year program. Those increases we have mentioned would be for 5 years. In addition. starting in the 1999 fiscal year. we would separate out of the H1B program health care workers. and create a new category. the HiC program with a limit of 10.000 annual visas for health care employees. We do that because a number of people have expressed concerns about the hightech program. the skilled worker program. That addresses concerns that if we make this significant increase in the numbers. too many of those will end up being used in areas which do not necessarily. right now. seem to have the need that the hightech information technology sector requires. So what we have decided to do in the legislation is essentially to create a new category of 10.000 visas that would be the limit annually for health care workers. That would reach 85.000 for the information technology and other highskilled categories. In addition. our legislation calls upon the INS to provide us with more information with regard to the H1B program. One of the frustrations that we have all had. and I know the Senator from California and I have talked about this in the subcommittee when we discussed this program. is that we dont actually know how many workers are coming in. into various categories. because the records are not that explicit. We have records of who applies for these H1B visas. but we do not and are unable to get a count on how they actually are distributed. We need that information if we are going to do the kind of longterm focus that I think necessary to properly oversee this whole program. To that end. and in addition to getting numbersthanks to an initiative that Senator KYL. a member of our subcommittee. has proposedwe include in the legislation the conducting of a study by the National Science Foundation to try to more accurately gauge our hightech. skilled worker needs.